Striker Extreme and 8GB RAM?

[halcyon]

I ordered an additional 4GB RAM to match the existing 4GB of Corsair XMS2 ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145176 )Striker Extreme I'm using and now that I've impulsively done that I'm concerned. I will be replacing 2x512MB Corsair XMS2 with the 2x2GB sticks. Going from 5GB to 8GB. The existing 5GB seems to run well in Vista64, I'm wondering if using 8GB will cause any performance degredation (i.e., the 680i chipset/Striker Extreme deals with 5GB fine but is less happy with 8GB). I don't want to lose performance.

*Why 8GB? The existing 5GB seems to run well in Vista64, I'm wondering if using 8GB will cause any performance degredation (i.e., the 680i chipset/Striker Extreme deals with 5GB fine but is less happy with 8GB?). 5GB is a little anemic for the virtualization experiments that are fun to run and I figured moving to 8GB would help, especially while memory is cheap.

Any advice is helpful as I can still cancel my NewEgg order.

 

[akhilles]

No, you won't lost peformance if the new ram has the same or better timings. Even if the new ram has looser timings, the difference will be negligible except in benchmarks.

I would increase the ddr2 voltage for 4 sticks of ram to a bit under the max rated voltage.

 

[darkstar782]

I'm not sure on this, but you MAY loose up to a GB or so....

As far as I'm aware, the nf680i only has 8GB of address space, and you could encounter a limit where address space has been used for the GPU etc, just as you do when running 4GB on windows x86.

 

[halcyon]

Thanks, both of you. Darkstar, I'm going to do some research on this....

 

[darkstar782]

I'll be interested too, I'm currently running 6GB on a GA-X38-DQ6 board and have considered upgrading to 8GB

Let me know what you find out!

 

[profundido]

I run 8GB pc6400 Corsair memory on striker extreme flawlessly and Darkstar, the limit is set by the OS, not by the hardware. This means that the limit forcing you to use less than the actual amount of memory does not apply to a Vista x64 with 8GB, Therefore, it is normal to have all 8192MB of memory available and I can confirm having this seen working on my computer (on a dail basis)

 

[halcyon]

I have to agree with Profundido. I've been running 8 GB of Corsair on my S.Extreme since October and it runs quite well. Vista 64 seems to manage the memory well. ...of course XP32 only sees 3.25 GB, but that was expected.

 

[sentofuno]

profundido, halcyon:

can i ask which ram exactly you use? is it 2 pairs of the ones here: http://www.awd-it.co.uk/scripts/prodview.asp?idproduct=3317

if not can you recommend the ones you use? a lot of ppl have been having issues. i am running a borrowed stick running on its own and it doesn't work if you populate any other slot.

also did you have to change anything in BIOS like volatges?

i understand using 4 sticks means the system runs at 667 rather than 800? is that what you have found?


thanks in advance